Brief Introduction Top

I received my PhD in the History & Social Study of Science and Technology from MIT in 1998, and came to teach in Singapore the following year. My research is mainly about modern Japan, ranging from architecture, to Meiji-period society and culture, to earthquakes. I'm also interested in the histories of computers & information technology, scientific constructions of race and gender, colonialism, landscape, bio-technology, and the drawing of boundaries between science and art. I'm the author of Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930 (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2006) and editor (with M.R. Smith) of  Major Problems in the History of American Technology (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1998), and (with Alan Chan & Hui-Chieh Loy)  Historical Perspectives on East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine (Singapore: Singapore U. Press & World Scientific 2002). I'm currently working on an edited volume related to historical and cultural interpretations of natural disaster in East Asia. 

Teaching Areas Top

My primary teaching is in the History of Science and Technology (particularly in the Asia/Pacific region and the United States) and on the Social/Cultural history of Modern Japan. I also lecture in a team-taught World History module. Most of my modules draw a healthy mix of students from FASS and other faculties (whether I'm talking about Science or Japan).

Current Research Top

My book Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868-1930 draws on scientific, architectural, engineering, and popular earthquake-related narratives from the Meiji and Taisho periods to say something about the relation between nation and nature. I’ve also published a number of book chapters and journal articles over the last three years related to the same theme.  My interest in earthquake narratives has recently led me into a larger area one might call ‘the history of emergency’. 

Research Interests Top

See above.

Other Information Top